WASHINGTON – Top members of President Bush’s war Cabinet yesterday denied claims in Bob Woodward’s explosive new book that the administration secretly made the decision to go to war in Iraq months before it was officially acknowledged.

“The president constantly sought a diplomatic solution. No decision was made to go to war until a decision was made to go to war in March [2003],” Powell said after a meeting with Jordan’s foreign minister, Marwan Jamil Al- Muasher. “Plan of Attack” reports the decision was made month earlier, in January.